Mercury - Part 8

Part 8 – Showtime

EXPERIMENT 207

01/02/2025

(Two figures sit across from each other at a table. One is a middle aged man, the other is a snow leopard recom of age six. Next to the man, there is a cart with some medical equipment on it. The snow leopard recom is strapped to the chair.)
RESEARCH ASSISTANT: "Hello, Mercury. Today is your date of euthanizing. This is not an experiment proper, but we will still be asking you a few final questions before your injection."
MERCURY: "..."
RA: "How was your final meal?"
M: "I think I'm sick. Let's do this another time..."
RA: "We can't. And you may be sick because you chose chocolate cake, lemon drops and boiled eggs as your final meal."
M: "But... maybe I should try again. Choose something that won't make me sick."
RA: "It doesn't matter anymore. Mercury, do you fear death?"
M: "No."
RA: "I see. Well, you will be spared if you can manage to answer my three questions truthfully, with straight answers."
M: (Hopefully) "Really? Honestly? Okay. I will! Anything!"
RA: "First, what were you wearing yesterday?"
M: (Pause) "Silver bio-tech standard issue jump suit for children."
RA: "Very good, Mercury. Can you tell me why?"
M: (Getting increasingly stressed) "You were checking the strength of my phobia. I was put into a confined space full of grimy feeling stuff that smelled awful. I wasn't able to identify it."
RA: "I suppose that's because of your panic attack. Last question: In EXPERIMENT 194, what was slide number 5?"
M: (seems to be having some kind of internal struggle) "It was a photograph of Mr. Erikson, holding a playing card. The jack of spades, I think. My memory of the photo is fuzzy."
RA: "Very good! It seems that in high stress situations you can recite facts without any misdirection."
M: "You'll unstrap me now, and I can go back with the others? Today, Mars will ask me to dance during music time and then... then I was going to teach Saturn a game I made up..."
RA: (Takes one of the needles from the medical cart and approaches Mercury, kneeling next to it.) "Mercury, it was just a test. A deception to test you under certain circumstances."
M: (Struggles again the bonds) "No! No! No! Get away! I'll do anything you want! Anything you want! STOP!"
RA: (Injects the struggling Mercury) "Hush, calm down. It won't be important soon. Despite the difficulty you presented to us, we appreciate your contributions to science and industry, Mercury. You are now decommissioned."
M: (Struggles with increasing weakness, clearly in pain) "Get away! No... I was going to... music time... Ne... Neptune..." (Head slumps forward, respiration ceases.)
RA: (Looks at his watch) "Mercury project terminated: February first, two thousand and twenty-five, 2:41 PM. Let's transport it for storage."

***

The loop was set to turn off in about ten more seconds. I stood behind the washroom door, since that's where the camera loop ended me out. I had checked the washroom for any further bugs while I was in here, but found none. I guess the Martians weren't particularly interested in watching me shower. Too bad, really, since I was (objectively speaking, of course) a pretty good looking guy.

Well, at least the Martians would be able to see how incredibly photogenic I was in the upcoming show. I entered the room, stretching and yawning, and I sat next to Samara, who had already in position at the desk, reading a book. Some fantasy-horror novel, called 'Tortuous Madness'. I hadn't read it, but I've heard that it's awful. One of those books that's so bad that it's a must-read.

"Hiya, honey-buns, what are you up to?" I said, looking over Samara's shoulder. I put my hands on the feline's shoulders, which tensed up quite a lot at the contact, and noted, "Why don't you put that down and I'll show you an interesting narrative."

The snow leopard spun around and looked at me with this baffled expression. It took all I had to keep myself from laughing. The show we were putting on was unscripted, merely improvisation geared towards interacting like a normal couple. Read: A dysfunctional couple. "Ugh, not now, Larry. I was just getting to the good part," said Sam, a little disgustedly.

"Tamara... it's not really a honeymoon if we aren't producing any honey." This got me another befuddled look. God, I loved this game. "Making any love. You know... sex. Let's sex it up. C'mon..." I said, before Sam swatted my hands away. I took a step back and raised my eyebrow slightly.

"God, Larry, I... Do you know what? Maybe tomorrow. Tonight I'm just... I'm just a bit tired," said Sam, who then stood up suddenly and looked at me pleadingly for a few moments.

"We haven't... come on, first I wait until marriage, and then this? I mean, I know it's not all about the sex, but I'd really like-"

"Listen, I'm just not in the mood right now." Samara stood up, put a hand on my shoulder and said, "I'll be ready, dear, just not tonight, okay?"

I put on my best disappointed face (the face that I would put on if I were actually in this situation) and nodded, "Okay, okay... I guess we just go to bed, then. Don't want to pressure you into doing anything you don't want to." I scratched my head lightly and headed into the bed. I was already in my nightwear, as that was why I was supposed to be in the washroom. So long as we occasionally presented interactions like this, the looped silence between both of our aliases would make some sense. After all, Larry and Tamara are having the worst honeymoon ever.

A few moments passed, and Samara slipped into the bed as well. We both lied there silently for what seemed like an eternity, motionless, before Sam's second PDA (apparently, there's a need to always carry more than one around? In this scenario, I guess I was thankful for it) made a beeping sound, to signal that the video was looping us sleeping again, so that we'd be able to have a conversation before actually going to bed (and actually starting up the camera again. I made sure not to shift in the meantime).

"That was fun," I said toward Sam, who was facing me, and I waggled my brow slightly. "So did you mean what you said about tomorrow night? Rowr."

Sam smiled at me. It was the first time that I'd seen the expression on the snow leopard recom's face, and it actually looked genuine. "I always say what I mean."

I paused for a few moments and looked at the recom across from me. I knew that Samara was an androgyne, but it was still kind of strange for me to be sharing a bed with someone. Rusty probably wasn't exactly comfortable sleeping across from me like this. Once I got on that line of thought, though, I found it a little more difficult to come up with any worthwhile topics of conversation, and so just stared blankly.

This just aroused Sam's suspicion, "You seem like a man with something on his mind, Racer, so... what are you thinking of?"

At this prompt, I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind: "I know you're an androgyne, but do you ever think of, you know, romance and stuff?"

"You... know that I'm an androgyne?" said Samara. There was no genuine surprise in the recom's voice, since Sam knew how much research I had done, but there was still a hint of hurt that I had brought it up. "Don't think of me like that. But... I never think about love or relationships or that kind of trash. I've never thought about it." This, if you were fluent in Sam's language, essentially meant 'yes'.

"If I'm not going to think of you as an androgyne, how should I think of you?" It really was difficult for me to figure out. Most recoms were genetically modified so that they would be male or female, instead of the way we were previously designed, before the Apocalypse war, as sexless worker drones, but still some androgynes popped out from time to time. I was never sure what to call them, what pronouns to use. All around, it was a bit uncomfortable.

Sam seemed annoyed at the question, and ready to just press the button on the second PDA again, to start the video back up and silence us both, but stopped short of doing this. "Why do you think I use aliases like Tamara?" Sam's teeth gritted together for a moment, and it seemed as though the other recom was really struggling to say the next words, so I paid attention. "I am a woman. You might not be able to tell, but I am. My body just has design flaws. That's not my fault. That's not something I chose."

I nodded slowly at Samara and, seeing the hurt in those ice-blue eyes after I asked my question and got the ensuing answer, glanced down at my toes.

"Prepare for my shutting off the loop in three seconds."

I looked up, got myself into exactly the right position, and Samara gave me a mumbled, "Goodnight," and pressed the button.

After the loop ended, Sam shifted a bit and turned her back to me.